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A Head Full of Ghosts

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A Head Full of Ghosts

By: Paul Tremblay
Narrated by: Joy Osmanski
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About this listen

A chilling thriller that brilliantly blends psychological suspense and supernatural horror, reminiscent of Stephen King's The Shining, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist.

The lives of the Barretts, a suburban New England family, are torn apart when 14-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia. To her parents' despair, the doctors are unable to halt Marjorie's descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend. Fifteen years later a best-selling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls the terrifying events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories begin to surface, and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed.

©2015 Paul Tremblay (P)2016 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
Ghosts Suspense Haunted Scary Exciting Exorcism Fiction Mental Health

Critic Reviews

" A Head Full of Ghosts scared the living hell out of me, and I'm pretty hard to scare." (Stephen King, best-selling author)
"Terrific.... Generates a haze of an altogether more serious kind: the pleasurable fog of calculated, perfectly balanced ambiguity." ( The New York Times Book Review)

What listeners say about A Head Full of Ghosts

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

would give 3.5/5

I felt the story took a long time to get going. Nearly stopped listening at one point..all the action was towards the end of the book. Nevertheless it had creepy moments that had you questioning what was going on.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A dark crimson diamond in the rough

an unexpected gem of a story that had well written build up, explored characters and an ending I didn't see coming.

highly recommend it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

What a fantastic story! It was creepy, funny, and emotional. I can’t wait to see the movie adaptation.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

oh wow

Did make me thing towards the end. And I was also manipulated as much as the other characters.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting twists and turns.

I really enjoyed this reading. One criticism for a brilliant performance, work on your male voice! Otherwise, as I said, brilliant. As for the story itself, it lacked a lot of true horror or, what makes me frightened anyway. Stephen King gave It high praise so who am I to judge. I just found it to be more of an account of a situation that I found myself easily lost in at times and distant at others. But I sound like I'm criticising too much when I enjoyed the characters and following along with Merry. Action from beginning to end which is a big winner. I wanna hang out with Ken too. Overall, I recommend.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

enthralling

This book engaged me from the start and kept me going back to it at every opportunity. The plot weaves and ducks al over the place and is told through the voice of Mary ... A cracking good read that leads us through the lives of a family , tormented and struggling to understand the complete breakdown of their way of life ..

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Unexpected twists and turns..

I enjoyed this story and the narrator was good, except when she did a male voice...
Unexpected ending...

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A story that really creeps up on you

Inevitable and inescapable, the intimate and classic creepy tragedy of a family losing its cohesion. Some great meta moments that explore the classic horror and gothic horror genre while still holding the reader in the story. Well written characters - fallible adults , powerless children, the feeling of childhood, exploitation and the catholic church overstepping it’s abilities all authentically described and evoked.
A great read that will haunt you!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A very thoughtful book

An interesting read, slow at parts but always interesting. Can’t decide if it’s more ‘The Exorcist’ or ‘We Have To Talk About Kevin’ but it was engaging. Narrator was excellent too.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Honestly confusing

I felt like this book had good intentions but got swept up into two different what was happening and what was made up. This made it extremely hard to follow at times and honestly confusing, hence the headline of this review. It is a solid 2.5 stars because I didn’t hate it to the point of not finishing but it was honestly a slog to finish for me.

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